“But he may be Willy Reilly, sir, for all that; and you know the reward that is offered for his apprehension.”

“I know Willy Reilly,” replied the sheriff, “and I can assure you that this gentleman is not Willy Reilly.  Go, now, continue your pursuit.  The robber lurks somewhere in the neighborhood.  You know the reward; catch him, and you shall have it.”  The constables departed; and after they had gone the sheriff said, “Mr. Reilly, I know you well; but I would scorn to avail myself of the circumstance which has thus occurred.  I am aware of the motive which urges Sir Robert Whitecraft against you—­so is the whole country.  That penurious and unprincipled villain is thirsting for your blood.  Mr. Hastings, however, has a rod in pickle for him, and he will be made to feel it in the course of time.  The present administration is certainly an anti-Catholic one; but I understand it is tottering, and that a more liberal one will come in.  This Whitecraft has succeeded in getting some young profligate Catholics to become Protestants, who have, consequently, ousted their fathers out of their estates and property; younger sons, who, by this act of treachery, will get the estates into their own possession.  The thing is monstrous and unnatural.  But let that pass; Whitecraft is on our trail in all directions; beware of him, I say; and I think, with great respect to you, Mr. Reilly, it is extremely foolish to go abroad in your usual apparel, and without disguise.”

“Sir,” replied Reilly, “I cannot express, as I would wish, my deep gratitude to you for your kindness and forbearance.  That Sir Robert Whitecraft is thirsting for my blood I know.  The cause of that vengeance is now notorious.”

“You know Mr. Hastings, Mr. Reilly?”

“Intimately, sir.”

“He took your property in his own name?”

“He did, sir; he purchased it in his own name.  The property was hereditary property, and when my title to it, in point of law, as a Catholic, was questioned, and when one of my family, as a Protestant, put in his claim for it, Mr. Hastings came in as the purchaser, and ousted him.  The money was supplied by me.  The moment, however, that I found Whitecraft was after me, I immediately surrendered the whole of it back to him; so that Sir Robert, in burning what he considered my property, in fact burned Mr. Hastings.”

“And I have reason to know, Mr. Reilly, that it will be the blackest act of his guilty life.  This, however, I mention to you in the strictest confidence.  Keep the secret, for if it transpired the scoundrel might escape from the consequences of his own cruelty and oppression.  In the meantime, do you take care of yourself—­keep out of his way, and, as I said, above all things, procure a disguise.  Let the consequences be what they may, I don’t think the beautiful Cooleen Baum will ever marry him.”

“But,” replied Reilly, “is there no risk of compulsion by her father?”